Living, Loving, Learning & Laughing Along the Way!

Author: NW Mama

This week arrived on time and I’m in a bit of a panic that my menu plan isn’t done for the month. I wasn’t ready for Christmas Break to be over (yes, we take breaks in our homeschool), and our schedule got very busy, very fast. Still behind a day or so, I’m brainstorming this menu as I am writing this post. Mr. K and I have a hot date this Friday: dinner and grocery shopping. Those with kids will understand!

The rest of the month will be planned before our date, and life will hopefully resume a normal temperature soon. So here we go:

January 8,2017 – January 15, 2017

Sunday, January 8 – Refrigerator Cleanout. We will not be having leftovers again tomorrow night. We all refuse.

Over the next month or two, there will be some changes around this blog.. it’s purpose has been purely personal, and I’m trying to figure out how to make it relevant to both me and you. So excuse the mess, and the leap from one subject to another with each post. I suspect most of this week’s posts will be centered around food, but there may be a few faith moments, and a few random topics. We shall see!

The title of this post sounds forlorn and a little melancholy. I suppose there may be some of that in there. A little bittersweet, too. This isn’t the end of a relationship, though, but rather a continuing in the journey. It IS the end of a year, however. It is the end of a year of growing, maturing, and wrestling with my faith. It is also the beginning of a new year of continuing growing and maturing, and I suspect there will be some wrestling again in there somewhere too.

In the middle of 2015, I decided to check out the app, Daily Audio Bible. I really wanted to listen to the Bible from beginning to end, but much of the year had passed and I was not able to catch up by the end of the year. So 2016 arrived, and I decided again that I would make it a personal goal to follow the podcast and listen to the Bible in a year. I am not naive in that I knew my life would be different at the end of the year, but I did not expect how it would be different. I did not anticipate how listening to the last podcast of 2016 would have me sobbing, praying with the spirit of thankfulness, for Jesus’ mercy and faithfulness in the last year. I felt like I had come to end of the first BIG milestone in my faith, and I was breathless, completely poured out, but ready for the next part of the journey to begin. So I’ve committed to another year of reading/listening through God’s word via Daily Audio Bible. Thank you to everyone at DAB for your ministry, lives are being changed because of your obedience to God’s calling on your hearts.

Goodbye 2016. Boy, has it been real. I really didn’t expect it to end this way, but I am really looking forward to the journey in 2017. God has brought me this far, and I’m still trusting Him to lead.

I know the New Year has rolled around, and Christmas has passed, but the good news is that Christmas is coming again in another 11 months and 22 days! This gives plenty of time to practice and perfect special recipes. The most special, on my side of the family, is lefse. A Norwegian treat. Practice = more lefse to eat!

A friend of mine and I got together a few days before Christmas, and made traditional potato lefse, using this recipe from LefseTime.com. We doubled the recipe, but somehow communication was confused (not hard when you are busy chatting and solving world peace), and we doubled-doubled the butter. Our “mistake” turned out to be genius! So for you wonderfully, blessed non-GF’ers, my only note for you on this recipe is to double the butter (increase the 1/4 cup butter to 1/2 cup butter), and DECREASE the cream (from 1/2 cup cream to 1/4 cup cream). Voila. Brilliant. Uff da, and all the rest.

Back to Gluten Free, because that’s why we’re here.. Or why I’m here.. you get the point. I just made this gluten free version yesterday, and I am so pleased with how it turned out. I will do my best to give clear direction on the alterations that I made to the original recipe. If you missed the link in the paragraph above, here it is again: LefseTime.com.

Notes, or “Areas to be emphasized.”

(in case they are already mentioned in the original recipe)

Potatoes:

Boil the night before and add butter while hot (remember – DOUBLE the butter).

Cutting them into smaller pieces helps them cook more evenly.

Err on the side of overdone vs underdone.

Salt the water – about a tablespoon.

Drain REALLY well and cool without the lid on. This allows the extra moisture to escape. Then, refrigerate.

Use an electric mixer to get out the lumps. Ricer is not necessary, in my opinion.

Gluten free, especially: Handle dough gently. Don’t press down on the dough, just use the weight of the roller.

Use flour sparingly when needed.

Handle like pie dough. The more you play with it, the tougher it gets.

Gluten Free: Don’t roll dough too much onto the stick.. more like a slight roll and lift onto the griddle.

That’s all I have for now 🙂

Oh.. one more. I probably don’t have to tell you, but I will anyway. Enjoy a piece while it’s warm! We love it with butter and cinnamon and sugar. My friend enjoys it with butter and brown sugar. BOTH are delicious!